Days of Modi’s one-person rule over; will repeat Lok Sabha triumph in Assembly polls, Sharad Pawar says

Sharad Pawar remarked that the days of “one-person rule” were over.

Taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday remarked that the days of “one-person rule” were over as the new Central government could not have been formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without support of other parties.

“The ‘Modi guarantee’ is now over, a change made possible by the power of the voters,” said the 83-year-old Mr. Sharad Pawar, speaking in Baramati (in Pune district) where he is on a three-day visit.

Mr. Sharad Pawar, whose party notched up wins on eight of the 10 Lok Sabha seats it contested, was on a visit to Baramati’s Purandar taluk, which is presently facing acute water scarcity.

“For the last 10 years, the country’s government had been a one-person system, but now, after this general election, it has been freed from that. The Central government was formed with the help of other parties. The situation was such that the government could not be formed without the help of the Chief Ministers of Bihar [Nitish Kumar] and Andhra Pradesh [N. Chandrababu Naidu], which means the days of one person running the government had ended. It also means that Mr. Modi’s much-vaunted guarantee is over and the power to end it lies with the people,” said Mr. Sharad Pawar.

He said the Lok Sabha election outcome indicated a similar result would be repeated in the State Assembly election.

“After the Lok Sabha election results are replicated in the Assembly election, I will give the reins of the State to the hands of the people and this power will be used to address pressing issues. For that, I need your [people’s] co-operation,” Mr. Sharad Pawar told the gathering.

The NCP (SP) chief had routed the rival NCP faction led by his rebellious nephew, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, in the recent Lok Sabha election, with his daughter Supriya Sule winning the fiercely-contested Baramati Lok Sabha seat by defeating her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar (Mr. Ajit Pawar’s wife).